But a good year, too, in important ways. Truths both ugly and beautiful have come out of the shadows, previously taboo subjects are being discussed openly, ancient injustices are being challenged. We are living through a tipping-point, a global paradigm-shift.

In the US we've suffered through a 509 Day Dumpster Fire of an election that's been tough on friendships, marriages, even families.

Morbidly entertaining, too. Because of our irresistible urge to gawk. And man, what a spectacle it's been!

And we do love team sports. What a game it's been!

And we do love our TV's. And what a show it's been! With an outstanding "Series Finale" about to air in living rooms and barber shops and offices and airports and bars and taxi cabs and cell phones, all across the world.

I hope the United States will make us proud, and show that grownups can remember what we learned in kindergarten.

Many things have been said about Donald Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton over the past 509 days of this unprecedented campaign.

But I'll bet not a single other human has uttered the words, "I love them both."

Let's just all be like Tatiana, and see the good in every person, no matter how big, no matter how small.

All we need is love.

So this is it, West Coast Swing friends around the world!

Sometime in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, November 9 2016, we will at last be finished with this impossible election, and finally, finally, move on to what really matters.

Dancing! And the 2016 US Open!

The term, "paradigm shift," was coined by Thomas Kuhn in 1962 in his book, "The Structure of Scientific Revolution." Kuhn argued that scientific advancement is not evolutionary, but is a “series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions,” in which “one conceptual world view is replaced by another.”